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Jorge Castañeda to Deliver the 2012 Jacob K. Javits Lecture, “BRICs, Human Rights, and the New International Legal Order,” April 25

March 27, 2012
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Jorge Castañeda, Jacob K. Javits Visiting Professor and Global Distinguished Professor of Politics and Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University, and Mexico’s former secretary of foreign affairs, will deliver the 2012 Jacob K. Javits Visiting Professorship Lecture, “BRICs, Human Rights, and the New International Legal Order,” on Wed., April 25, 5 p.m., at NYU’s Silver Center (Hemmerdinger Hall), 100 Washington Square East (at Washington Place/enter at 32 Waverly Place or 31 Washington Place).

The lecture, sponsored by New York University and The Marian B. and Jacob K. Javits Foundation, is free and open to the public, but space is limited. RSVP is required at http://www.nyu.edu/fas/forms/javitsvisitingprofessor/. For more information, call 212.998.8000. Reporters wishing to attend must RSVP to James Devitt, NYU’s Office of Public Affairs, at 212.998.6808 or james.devitt@nyu.edu. Subway Lines: 6 (Astor Place); N, R (8th Street).

Few matters generate as much consensus in international affairs today as the need to rebuild the world geopolitical order. A retooled international order, Castañeda contends, would be far more representative of the distribution of power in the world today, but it is not clear whether it would be better. Changes in Libya and Egypt in the past year, along with the conflict in Syria, have made these questions even more pressing.

Castañeda has authored several books, including: Utopia Unarmed: The Latin American Left after the Cold War (1993); The Mexican Shock (1995); Compañero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara (1997); Perpetuating Power: How Mexican Presidents Were Chosen (2000); and Ex-Mex: From Migrants to Immigrants (2008). Castañeda is a regular columnist for the Mexican daily Reforma and Newsweek International.

The Jacob K. Javits Visiting Professorship at NYU was established to honor the memory and accomplishments of the four-term U.S. Republican Senator from New York, the late Jacob K. Javits, an alumnus of the NYU School of Law, and to perpetuate the values and intellectual integrity for which he stood. The Visiting Professorship is awarded to a distinguished individual—an academic, lawyer, policymaker, journalist, historian, philosopher, or former elected official—whose work focuses on an issue close to the Senator’s interests. These areas include: health, civil rights, labor, foreign policy, rights of handicapped individuals, education, and fairness in employment and economic security for working Americans. Among his many accomplishments, Senator Javits introduced legislation that became the War Powers Act of 1973, was a strong advocate and principal sponsor of the ERISA Act (Employment Retirement Income Security Act) providing much needed pension benefit reform, and a staunch supporter and sponsor of the legislation that created the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities. Among the many significant awards, he was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983.

The Javits Professorship at NYU was inaugurated in 2008, with generous support from The Marian B. and Jacob K. Javits Foundation and its President and Chief Executive Officer, Marian B. Javits, the widow of the late Senator. She continues the work of the Senator to promote excellence in public service, focusing on the education of the next generation of our country’s leaders. Marian Javits is an arts consultant and a patron of the arts. She is the recipient of the pen that President Lyndon Johnson used in signing into law the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities in recognition of her contribution to that legislation. She continues to serve on state and national boards dealing with the arts and humanities, women’s issues, and the mentally handicapped.

Previous honorees as The Jacob K. Javits Visiting Professor at NYU were: Howard Gardner, Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education; David Oshinsky, Jack S. Blanton Chair in History, University of Texas and Distinguished Scholar in Residence in NYU’s Department of History; and novelist Pete Hamill, a Distinguished Writer in Residence at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and former editor of both the New York Post and New York Daily News.

Jorge Castañeda, Jacob K. Javits Visiting Professor and Global Distinguished Professor of Politics and Latin American and Caribbean Studies at NYU, and Mexico’s former secretary of foreign affairs, will deliver the 2012 Jacob K. Javits Visiting Professorship Lecture, “BRICs, Human Rights, and the New International Legal Order,” on Wed., April 25.